Evaluates the effectiveness of one-year participation in a program of volunteer-facilitated peer support groups conducted in a southwest Texas high school. Results of program evaluation by participants (N=118) indicate that the program was highly accepted even though two-thirds of the students had initially felt uncomfortable in the group.…

Successful college and university telephone fund-raising campaigns depend on basic techniques such as asking for larger donations and attaining a high fulfillment rate, but these techniques require careful caller training. Specific approaches include role-playing, encouraging taking time to build rapport, requiring follow-up on pledges, letting…

Describes the author's psychology class, in which she required students to do service work with a resident in a nursing home. Reports that students met for a minimum of eight hours with the resident and wrote both a history of the person and a reflection on the project. States that half of the students decided to continue volunteering after the…

Reports that those who work as professional directors of religious education and coordinators of religious education have often been compensated with a volunteers stipend only. States that the National Association of Parish Catechetical Directors met to share information on what can be done to better compensate these leaders. (CJW)

Describes a service learning program aimed at improving balance and mobility in a group of older adults from an independent living center while giving college students (mainly exercise and sport science majors) an opportunity to interact with this population. The program has resulted in improved balance and mobility for the older adults and…

Describes the results of the American Chemical Society Public Outreach Office's research program to measure the impact of the Kids & Chemistry program on both the children and the volunteer scientists. Highlights include objectives of the program, pretest research, focus group results, field tests, and pre- and posttest survey results.…

In an America Reads community program, teams of undergraduate volunteers led of career counseling graduate students tutor elementary students in literacy. The program seeks to cultivate civic responsibility as an aspect of career development. (SK)

Examines retrospectively the experiences of 332 graduates of TRIO programs for disadvantaged students, highlighting their postsecondary attainments, careers, and contributions as volunteers. Discusses how 10 TRIO achievers perceived that TRIO participation contributed to their success. Their accomplishments demonstrate the value of TRIO programs'…

Describes an Adopt-a-Grandparent program involving seventh-grade students and area senior citizens. Describes aspects of program implementation and organization, including advance preparation, contacting and meeting grandparents, funding, and visits. Discusses program outcomes, including behavioral observations, studies related to…

Discusses political apathy and alienation among youth, challenging this negative image. Describes empirical research that demonstrates a high level of engagement by young people in social activism and community activities, focuses on factors influencing young people's participation, and demonstrates that volunteering and campaigning affect young…

These eight articles describe successful public library programs for teens. Highlights include programs emphasizing immigrants' cultures; viewing film adaptations from appropriate books; summer book discussion groups; using music to promote reading; using teen and senior citizen volunteers to help restore books; teens as computer tutors for other…

In spite of a progressive institutionalisation of community-based learning into higher education, relatively little is known about the actual dynamics and correlates of volunteering by students. The study presented seeks a more in-depth understanding of the spontaneous, extracurricular involvement within a university student population. Data are…

Bedford Hills has been offering degrees for some 15 years in partnership with Mercy College. This document discusses the programs offered at Bedford Hills that allow women to earn their GED and postsecondary education degrees while incarcerated and after they are released.

The Leadership Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (LABS-III; Wielkiewicz, 2000) was validated against a measure with a more traditional, position-based definition of leadership. Disagreement with Hierarchical Thinking was associated with a higher GPA. A Life-Long Learning scale was strongly associated with GPA, Systemic Thinking, and social activism.…

The purpose of this research was to examine why some students made greater gains in reading achievement than did others who participated in one volunteer tutoring program, Reading Partners. The relationships between gains in reading achievement and the texts students read, the experience of the volunteer with whom they worked, and student entering…